Leslie and David's Wanderings: February 2024

Thursday, February 29, 2024

29 February 2024 Duck Point to Lakes Entrance

Happy leap day! David woke up with the same symptoms Leslie had experienced two days before. So now we are both sick with a flu. But we had to move on to the next location, so we packed up and loaded up the car to head to the Lakes Entrance area. The drive took us through some of Australia’s rural roads. Other than the funky looking trees, you would think you were in the USA Midwest. Lots of cattle and sheep ranches with a few farms growing corn and sad looking rural towns. We are staying at the Waverly Cottages near the town of Lakes Entrance. After unpacking the car, we explored our new cottage and were happy to find a clothing washer and dryer were included. We were running low on clean cloths! The cottage claims to have an ocean view, but we could not find it. Later in the afternoon, we made a run up to a Woolworths grocery store to get some things for dinner and food for the next day. We were both feeling a bit rough and did not think we should expose others in a restaurant.

Waverly Cottage

28 February 2024 Wilson’s Promontory National Park

Leslie was feeling a little bit better this morning. After our breakfast and a lazy morning, we headed out for Wilson’s Promontory Park. It wasn’t far from where we’re staying. At entry we only stopped to grab a park map. Knowing the roads were few, we chose to drive as many as possible if only to be turned around by a trailhead. Lots of thick dense brush on the sides of the road had us looking for wildlife. Occasional signs warned of koala, kangaroo, wambats and wallabies were active and a danger. In other words, “If you don’t see any wildlife here, it’s you’ re own darn fault!” Still, as hard as we looked, nothing. We stopped at Whisky Bay and hiked to the overlook (0.5 miles). It’s a beautiful bay and beach. We drove onto the Visitor Center and General Store. Looked around the GS then headed to VC. There was a nice interpretative exhibit in the VC that ended at the exit door. Ate our packed lunch between the VC and the GS, just in front of the bathrooms (not cleaned in years). On our way back we decided to stop at the Wildlife Loop hike (1.5 miles) and make a last ditch effort to see what wildlife we may. Clouds were setting in and it was probable we might get wet. We went for it. Lovely walk through the brush, but no wildlife. The hike took us to an old WW2 airfield that was used for a secret Australian Commando Training base. The last half of the walk it started to rain. On the last quarter of our walk, we did manage to catch a glimpse of a rather large black lizard with white spots, at least a foot in length. Apparently, there are over a thousand National Parks in Australia. The budget must be shoestring thin! No wonder there’s hardly any effort for maintenance. Seems like a lost opportunity to us. Sell these parks!

Entry Sign

Whisky Bay

27 February 2024 Melbourne to Duck Point

This was not David’s morning. After getting everything repacked in our suitcases. We dragged them down to the lobby so Leslie could keep an eye on them while David walked down to the rental car agency ½ mile away. His leg was pretty sore from the previous day, so it was more of a hobble than a walk down. He first stopped at the bank to withdraw cash on our debit card, but it still was not working, even after our calls with the bank last Friday. Then he was looking for a pharmacy to get some drugs for Leslie, but it had closed. The itinerary from the travel agent did not have a company name for the rental. Just and address on 114 Flinders. David got to 114 Flinders Ln but could not find a rental car agency. After wandering around he saw a sign for a rental car return and followed that to a rental car agency. But they did not have a reservation for us. They looked at the itinerary and told him he needed to go to 114 Flinders St, the next block over. Who puts two streets with nearly identical names (Flinders Ln and Flinders St) right next to each other. So he hobbles over one block only to find not rental car agency at that address. After talking with a local merchant, he found out that location had closed over a year ago. After a couple of calls back to the travel agency (which was at the end of their day due to the time and date difference), he picked up a cab to the new location for the Hertz agency. Once there, they informed him there was an additional $372AUD for a one way rental and a $200AUD deposit that was not covered by the travel agency. This led to several more phone calls to the 24hr customer service at the travel agency. He finally paid the additional charges while the travel agency “investigated” what had happened. In the car, a KIA SUV, he swung by the hotel, picked up Leslie, and got the hell out of Melbourne! Along the way we stopped at a Pharmacy for Leslie and then a grocery store to pick up some provisions for the next couple of days. The place we are going is remote and there are no food services nearby. We arrived at the Limosa Rise Cabins a little after 5 Pm. After checking out the cabin, we poured ourselves a drink and sat on the deck absorbing the beautiful view of the ocean and Wilson’s Promontory in the distance. After making some dinner, we returned to the deck and watched as a mob of Kangaroo grazed on a field below us.

Our rental

Limosa Rise Cottage

Our Deck at Limosa Rise

Mob of Kangaroo behind our cottage

26 February 2024 Great Ocean Road

This was our second tour with Oceania Tours and Safaris (our driver was Fred). They are not affiliated with the Oceania cruise company in any way. Leslie started coming down with something during the wine tour. We thought at first maybe it was just allergies. But she had a miserable night and was not feeling well at all in the morning. So, David headed out on the tour by himself. A couple from England (and Sweden) were on the wine tour yesterday was also on this tour. First stop on our tour was at a chocolatier where David picked up some chocolate for Leslie and some fudge brownie ice cream for himself. The next stop was at the official start of the great ocean road. The road was built between 1919 and 1938. With soldiers returning home from WW1 and the economy depressed (IE high unemployment), there were not jobs for the 6,000 returning soldiers. So, they decided to build a costal road linking the small costal villages west of Melbourne. The effort employed about 3,000 former soldiers and another 1,000 civilians to build the road by hand. The arch at the beginning of the road is to commemorate the effort of all those people. Fred was in a hurry to keep us on schedule, so he blew by a lot of really pretty overlooks in his haste to get us to the designated lunch spot. He made one stop to show us how he feeds the Magpies at one overlook. He even managed to get a Kookaburra to take a “twisty” snack from him. A first! He made another stop because he saw a crowd that was trying to get a picture of a Koala in a tree. But it was napping and not cooperating with the photographers. We stopped for lunch in Apollo Bay for lunch. After lunch we drove to Melba Gully, in Great Otway National Park, where we all hiked down to Anne’s Cascade. There was an alternative route back, but it involved a lot of stairs. Wanting to get away from the crowd, David elected to take the alternate route back. Unfortunately, the stair climbing aggravated a muscle pull he had from a Charlie horse a couple of nights before and he was limping by the time he made it back to the van. Next stop was to see a mob of Kangaroo. David stayed back by the van rather than limb out into a field to see the kangaroo. But there was a caravan setting up nearby and he walked over to talk with the couple, like RVers all over the world would do! After a pleasant conversation with them about RVing in Australia and their rig, he reluctantly went back to the van. Finally, we got to the Twelve Apostles in Port Campbell National Park! This was the real goal of the trip, to see these great buttes jutting out from the sea! It was a beautiful scene, even with the hundreds of people vying for the perfect picture! We made one more stop at Loch Ard Gorge before pilling in the van for the three hour drive back to Melbourne. David got back about 8:30pm. Leslie was still sick but seemed to be on the mend after a day of rest.

Coast along the Great Ocean Road

Start of the Great Ocean Road

Fred feeding the Magpies

Pair of Kookaburra in the wild

Apollo Bay

Anne’s Cascade

12 Apostles

Loch Ard Gorge

25 February 2024 Yarra Valley Tasting

The wine tour bus picked us up in front of Her Majesties Theater. When we got there, we found several other people waiting as well, but we were not sure if they were part of our tour or not. Funny how we’re all sizing each other up. As we talked together about it later on in the day we all laughed at how funny we were since we all there for the tour. We had an interesting mix of people on the tour. Some folks from Carmel CA, a man from Tokyo, single women from South Korea, Auckland, and the Netherlands, couples from Melbourne, Singapore, South Africa, and Iowa. Our first stop was Greenstone Winery for a tasting. We liked a couple of their wines, but the bus did not have storage for many purchases, so we held off to see what might be ahead. Our next stop was Balgownie winery where we did a tasting and then had lunch with a wine pairing. After lunch, we cornered the sommelier to taste some of their private reds. We walked away with two of their reds and two bottles of their Sparkling Shiraz. Next stop was Yering Farms. A small private label winery. We did not care for their wines. Next, we stopped at Tokar Winery. By now, our tastebuds were numb from all the wine tasting. But they did have a Tempernillo that Leslie liked so we picked up a bottle of that to take as well. Then it was back to Melbourne with a little side trip to see some Kangaroos in the wild (on a golf course!) and a colony of large bats hanging in the trees along the freeway.

Greenstone Vineyard

Balgownie Vineyard

Seeing up for our first tasting at Balgownie

Tour group lunch at Balgownie

Yering Vineyard

Tokar Vineyard

24 February 2024 Exploring the markets

We didn’t have any tours planned for today. We walked down the Le Troupe Mall (three blocks long and 5 stories high) and had lunch in the food court. It’s an overwhelming retail experience! After walking around the high-end shops, we headed over to the Queen Victoria open air market. This was extensive yet better suited to our expectations. The market is named after the intersection of the streets and not on the actual Queen. The market has been open 7 days a week since the 1870s. After wandering around for a while, Leslie bought a watch she saw that reminded her of an old watch she had and some Christmas gifts for the family. We then found a funky little neighborhood bar nearby called The Last Chance for a refreshment before the long walk back to our hotel. Later we had dinner at a street café and watched the Saturday night crowd walk by.

Old Courthouse

Queen Victoria Market

Meat market section of Queen Victoria Market

Merchandise portion of Queen Victoria Market

Merchandise portion of Queen Victoria Market - Leslie picking out her watch

Produce portion of Queen Victoria Market

23 February 2024 Penguin Walk

Our first tour in Australia, Oceania Tours and Safari’s (Travis was our driver), picked us up after lunch. We headed down to the Moonlit Sanctuary where they take injured animals to be rehabilitated. We arrived just as they were closing, so we were a little rushed to get through the exhibits. We visited the Koala Bear area to see the cute little balls of fur getting their meals of Eucalyptus branch’s. Then Leslie got to feed a Kangaroo and a Wallaby. David almost could not pull her away to continue the tour. We also got to see some dingo’s and various birds before we were ushered out the door. Next, we went down to Phillips Island where we saw numerous Wallaby’s in the wild and went down to Surf Beach. The wind was blowing so hard, it was picking up sand and blowing it against us. But the waves were beautiful! Unfortunately, there was no one surfing today. Then it was on to the small village of Cowes where we went to Nates for a bit of “flake and chips” (breaded shark and French fries). Finally, we arrived at the Feather Penguin reserve and joined the hundreds of other people from all over the world on the viewing platform. We had to wait about 30 minutes after dark before the foot tall feather penguins began to waddle out of the surf and walking past the viewing platform to their nests. Some were so fat that they kept falling over. Babies came out of the nests screaming for their parents to come and feed them. There were rangers walking up and down the platform telling people they could not use their cameras as it would disturb the penguins. The flash would blind them and interfere with their hearing. But people were still sneaking pictures and video’s (including us!) when the rangers were not looking (But we had our flash turned off). It was fun to see them waddle by as wave after wave of penguins came ashore. The rangers estimated over 1800 came ashore that night. The penguins will spend several days out at sea eating before coming ashore and walking to their nests to rest for a couple of days before going back out. They must reach a desired weight in order to go through the molting process. They estimate the colony is 40,000 strong. On any particular night, only a portion of the colony is coming ashore.